MOSCOW, May 22. /TASS/. Russia’s foreign ministry will analyze possible impacts of US’ anti-Venezuelan sanctions on the interests of Russian companies, a ministry official said on Tuesday.
"This is a topic that is to be looked at by our economic operators to see to it that our companies work in real conditions," said Alexander Shchetinin, director of the ministry’s Latin America department.
"Naturally, we will thoroughly analyze possible impacts on Russian businesses," he added.
According to the Russian diplomat, the sanctions will definitely tell on the Venezuelans. "The sanctions will only add to the hardships the country is living through and will tell on the life of the Venezuelans. From this point of view, the sanctions in no way can help reach the goals declared by the nations that are imposing such sanctions," Shchetinin noted.
Venezuela’s incumbent President Nicolas Maduro won as many as 5.8 million votes at Sunday’s presidential polls. His closes rival, Henri Falcon of the Progressive Advance opposition party, managed to win 1.8 million votes.
The country’s biggest opposition parties controlling the parliament refused to take part in the electoral process. More than 20.5 million voters were invited to take part in the polls. The voter turnout was about 46% The voting was held on the backdrop of an acute socio-economic crisis in the country.
Even before the voting results were made public, Falcon had said he would not recognize them and had accused the authorities of buying votes.
Earlier in May, the United States, a number of Latin American countries and Spain said they would not recognize the results of the electoral process in Venezuela.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning US citizens and other individuals staying in his country to buy out the Venezuelan government’s debt securities. The ban is applicable to the debt of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.